Life Can't Imitate Art (Buchwald)

November 23, 2006 12:09 PM

Thankful to be alive (prematurely eulogized here), Art Buchwald presents his classic (and ever-more politically incorrect) Explaining Thanksgiving to the French column, written in the early 1950's and reprinted every year with varying introductions. Vive Le Kilometres Deboutish!
posted by wendell (17 comments total)

I have never seen this before, so thanks for posting it!

My partner is taking a class this year on the translation errors Anglophones make when trying to speak/write French. I think her prof will appreciate this. It's too bad that it's too late for (Canadian) Merci Donnant.
posted by arcticwoman at 12:50 PM on November 23, 2006

jesus christ, Rumsfeld visited Buchwald in the hospice
posted by matteo at 1:00 PM on November 23, 2006

This amused me, and undoubtably would have done so even more if I knew any French whatsoever.
posted by luftmensch at 1:10 PM on November 23, 2006

"jesus christ, Rumsfeld visited Buchwald in the hospice"


To warn him that before the night was over, he would be visited by three ghosts.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:40 PM on November 23, 2006

jesus christ, Rumsfeld visited Buchwald in the hospice

Tennis makes strange bedfellows. I just wonder if Rummy has taken Art up on his offer to get him into the hospice...
posted by wendell at 1:52 PM on November 23, 2006

Though it may cement my doltish image - I must confess that I just don't get that Thanksgiving article.

Anyone care to illuminate me?
posted by Tbola at 3:23 PM on November 23, 2006

The translation into French isn't just wrong, it's hilariously wrong, filled with tons of faux amis.
posted by bardic at 4:21 PM on November 23, 2006

I tried to read it but gave up.

OMG. Je suis francais?
posted by hal9k at 5:55 PM on November 23, 2006

Yay, Art, keep on...
posted by taosbat at 6:47 PM on November 23, 2006

Could someone please explain the punchline to me? The turkey has made me sluggish and easily confused.
posted by xthlc at 7:30 PM on November 23, 2006

Any other Francophones out there just find this flat and irritatingly affected?
posted by Wolof at 8:19 PM on November 23, 2006

I didn't know that Buchwald invented Babelfish (le folderol-poisson).
posted by rob511 at 9:02 PM on November 23, 2006

Cute, but not quite as great as the chapter in Me Talk Pretty One Day where Dave Eggers describes trying to explain Easter, in French, to someone who was completely unfamiliar with Christianity.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 9:50 PM on November 23, 2006

psst, pamplemousse — David Sedaris.
posted by rob511 at 9:54 PM on November 23, 2006

(Oh shit. I just mixed up my trendy authors named David didn't I? Crap.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:11 PM on November 23, 2006

Pamplemousse is one of the greatest words ever.
posted by Artw at 10:18 PM on November 23, 2006

thanks for posting this!
posted by ruelle at 2:06 PM on November 24, 2006